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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-11-07, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1990. PAGE 5. Enough of these phonees “Mister Watson, come here. I want you.” Those seven fateful words were uttered 114 years ago. Anyone in the vicinity of the young inventor who said them would have concluded he was nuts. After all it was 1876 - no cars, no electric lights, no radios - and here was a man in broad daylight, all by himself, talking into some newfangled jumble of wires and machin­ ery. He wasn’t mad; he was Alexander Graham Bell. And he had just transmitted intelligible words by telephone for the first time. A momentous moment in the history of man. Still, I wonder what Bell would make of his invention if he could walk our planet today. I wonder how he’d react to the sight of phone booths on street corners? Or the fact that people routinely ring up Mem­ phis, Melbourne or Moscow? What would he have to say about telephone answering machines? Could he in his wildest dreams have imagined that one day an American Do people remember enough on Remembrance Day? Mary Stretton Brussels Mary Stretton, towncouncil­ lor of Brussels, replied “It doesn’thold thesamevalues as it is used to be cause people are far more remov­ ed. It should be a time to reflect upon the cost of the world wars and maybe it should be a time to reflect upon peaceand with the Gulf crisis the way it is, everyone should be hoping for a peaceful solution.’’ president would talk by phone with an astronaut orbiting the moon? Personally, I’d surrender my Bell Credit Card for the chance to see Alex’ face as he listened in on a radio phone-in show. The telephone has transformed all our lives just as surely - and perhaps as profoundly -- as fire, the wheel, and Mister Edison’s wee, incandescent glass bulb. But let’s face it - it hasn’t been roses all the way. The miracle of the telephone also ushered in the curse of the obscene call, wrong numbers, heart-shattering intru­ sions during lovemaking ... And worse. Exhibit A: the cellular car phone. I resent government intrusion as much as the next civil libertarian, but if El Supremo Muldoon was to send in his jack-booted Van Doos tomorrow to confis­ cate and blast to smithereens every car phone from Come-By-Chance to the Queen Charlottes, he wouldn’t hear a peep of disapproval from me. Have you had the experience yet? Driving down the highway, you suddenly face an on-coming set of hi-beams weaving and strobing from one side of the road to the other, homing in on you like an Exocet missile? Your knuckles whiten on the wheel as you pump the brake and look for a good stretch of shoulder to slew your car onto. All the while, your brain, on Red Alert, is riffling through the possibilities -- Drunk? Escaping bank robber? Kamikaze Commuter? Driving School instructor gone beserk? The death ship clears your port side by millimetres and you see the driver Kathy Bromley Blyth Kathy Bromley of Blyth, vice-president of the ladies auxiliary said “ I do notice that there’s less younger people that don’t seem to understand what it’s all about. There is getting to be fewer and fewer people that realize just what Remem­ brance Day means. People did lay their lives on the line for us. That’s what it’s all about, we should remember them.’’ Shelley Bray RR 1, Ethel “I think people in this society have no idea how horrible the war was. It’s very sad that some of the new generation couldn’t be more respectful towards those who lived through the warand its hardships. We don’t remember, and we haven’taclue of what it was really like.’’ for a moment. He is none of the above. Just some Yuppie driving one-handed while the other cradles his car phone. I’m not the only curmudgeon who’s disenchanted with the marvel of Getting The Long Distance Feeling at 100 kilome­ tres an hour - or in a lot of other formerly private places for that matter. Movie patrons, restaurant customers and public transit passengers are rising up to protest these jangly little beggars that are popping up in places that used to be peaceful and quiet. One Florida movie chain has banned the use of portable phones in all its 18 movie houses. Bravo. Odeon and Cineplex please copy. I am no fan of the cellular phone phenomenon, but I have no illusions about stopping them. Car phones are so popular they’ve spawned their own sub-industry. Commuter Products Corporation of Emery­ ville, California offers a whole line of car phone accessories including in-car elec­ tronic message boards, clipboards that attach to the steering wheels, and even, so help me, fax machines that fit right under the dashboard. What next? Well, Phonevision of course. The day is coming - or so we are threatened - when you’ll have to dress up to answer the phone, because whoever’s calling will be able to see you as well as talk to you. Include me out. As a matter of fact there’s only one telephone accessory I still lust after. You folks can buy up all the cordless phones if you want. I’ve got my name in for a Phoneless Cord. Herb Stretton Brussels Herb Stretton, a verteran of W.W. I, of Brussels answer­ ed, “The younger genera­ tions seems to forget it or at least I think they do because other than the school child­ ren at the service at the cenotaph, you don’t see too many young people there. I believe the Legion deserves more recognition for their services. There will be wars and rumors of wars as long as there are people on earth.’’ Letter from the editor The two sides of charity BY KEITH ROULSTON The two sides of charity were seen recently in Orillia where a story that was once evidence of the warm heartedness of a community, turned sour. Orillia made headlines a few years back when the community rallied behind the courageous fight of Joey Philion, a teenager who had his life changed forever in a tragic fire. Joey escaped the fire with his life but his burns were so hideous that he faced years of treatment before he could hope to live any kind of life at all. He must have been inspired by the response of his townspeople. They made helping him a community crusade. Dona­ tions rolled in and volunteers went to work building his family a new home, one that could accommodate handicapped people as Joey was bound to be when he finally came home from hospital. As the money rolled in a trust fund was also set up to help Joey in the future. But somewhere over the years things went wrong. Joey and his family claim they felt they were “owned” by the community. People would drive by and look at their house and point it out to strangers. The family decided to leave Orillia and settle on the west coast. People in the community, including the contractor who headed up the campaign to rebuild the family house, were outraged. Many hinted that there was some plot of Joey’s mother and stepfather to make off with his money for their own purposes. There were angry confrontations before television cameras. The once heart-warm­ ing situation became heartbreaking in­ stead. While the Joey Philion situation is the most dramatic, there’s nothing isolated about the feelings involved. Even when people open their hearts and wallets to generously help someone they often feel they should have some say in what the people do. I recall the situation of the “boat people” a decade ago. Probably never has the warm, generous side of Canadians been more evident than in that tragedy. With an innovative program where the Canadian government matched the number of refugees sponsored by private citizens, Canadians rescued more than 100 thousand Vietnamese from intern­ ment camps in the far east. Churches across the country and locally were among the leaders in sponsoring families, finding them homes and donating clothing and furniture until they could get started. 1 remember a friend telling me members of one church were terribly upset about the ungratefulness of “their” family because the people wanted to move on out of the community as quickly as they could. It was an insult to the charity of the community that this family wanted to leave. I can recall other cases where communi- Continued on page 27 Letters to the editor Korean teacher seeks pen pals for her students DEAR EDITOR, It is my great pleasure to write to you. I expect you will be pleased to accept my appeal regarding’ over­ sea pen pals for our students. I am an English teacher in a noted high school, in Seoul, Korea. This school has about 2,500 stu­ dents of both sexes. I am eagerly seeking foreign students who would like to correspond with our students. There are many Korean students who want to exchange letter and friendship with foreign pen friends, and they frequently request me to let them have foreign pen friends. Throughout my foreign language teaching career, I’ve noticed this would help not only their English and emotional life, but also expand their knowledge of foreign lands. This would also promote world­ wide friendship and mutual rela­ tionship as well as serving as a true foundation of world peace. It feel it is necessary to publish this simple wish among the boys and girls of the world. Therefore, I courteously request you to run this letter in a corner of your valuable paper. The only information I need of a student is his or her name, ad­ dress, age, sex, hobbies and pic­ ture if possible. I expect to receive many letters from your readers wishing to correspond with our students. (Welcome group or class request). I will appreciate it very much if you let me have the chance to do this for my students. This would be a warm and thoughtful favor. Awaiting good news, I remain. Miss Park Myeong Shim C.P.O. Box 3315 Seoul 100 Korea People pleased with postal service THE EDITOR, Recently, many community newspapers in Southwestern On­ tario have carried an advertisement from the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association (CPAA). The advertisement alleges that service to rural Canadians has declined. This is false. The union’s allegation that cus­ tomers are frustrated by the so call ed decline in postal service is simply not born out by the facts. Numerous surveys by independent third parties clearly indicate that Continued on page 6